In Barn Burning by William Faulkner, Abner Snopes effortlessly establishes authority over his impoverished family by being the father of two boys and two girls. Throughout the story, he makes his family lie about his burning of neighbors’ personal items, especially his neighbors’ barns. Instead of having a terrible temper and burning neighbors’ property as a result of rage, Abner remains very tranquil, yet demanding, while controlling his family and forcing them into keeping his burning a secret. Similar to Abner, Gilgamesh in The Epic of Gilgamesh translated by Maureen Gallery Kovacs, also creates authority in an effortless way by being born as a king who is two-thirds god and one-thirds human. In this epic, Gilgamesh feels so much in power
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Like Abner, Gilgamesh also faces embarrassment when he demonstrates such pride. Rather than stepping in horse droppings such as in Barn Burning; however, Gilgamesh loses authority when he “bent his knees, with his other foot on the ground, his anger abated and he turned his chest away” (Kovacs 18). Since numerous lines of the ancient poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, are missing and from reading previous information, the reader of this epic can assume that Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a man created by the mother goddess, Aruru, battled each other very ferociously at the entry of a marital chamber, and because Gilgamesh was so sure of himself, he was very astonished to find that he was defeated. Gilgamesh bent his knees and turned his chest away, thus embarrassing himself in front of all the people of Uruk. If Gilgamesh had not had so much pride, his loss would not have been as detrimental to his self-esteem, and he would not have lost so much respect from the people following him. Overall, both Abner and Gilgamesh create astounding error in their authority and cause their subjects such as the citizens of Uruk and Abner’s family to lose their once strong faith in them by demonstrating too much pride while reigning in
Like Abner, Gilgamesh also faces embarrassment when he demonstrates such pride. Rather than stepping in horse droppings such as in Barn Burning; however, Gilgamesh loses authority when he “bent his knees, with his other foot on the ground, his anger abated and he turned his chest away” (Kovacs 18). Since numerous lines of the ancient poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, are missing and from reading previous information, the reader of this epic can assume that Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a man created by the mother goddess, Aruru, battled each other very ferociously at the entry of a marital chamber, and because Gilgamesh was so sure of himself, he was very astonished to find that he was defeated. Gilgamesh bent his knees and turned his chest away, thus embarrassing himself in front of all the people of Uruk. If Gilgamesh had not had so much pride, his loss would not have been as detrimental to his self-esteem, and he would not have lost so much respect from the people following him. Overall, both Abner and Gilgamesh create astounding error in their authority and cause their subjects such as the citizens of Uruk and Abner’s family to lose their once strong faith in them by demonstrating too much pride while reigning in